Simulspace Cultures

Server Models

One of the only universally shared pieces of terminology among simulspace cultures throughout the system is the server model, possibly because it is one of the only demonstrable elements of simulspace community servers. These stem from twentieth-century computer networks, which underlie modern networking models, and they remain tangible parts of the simulspace even for "fully skinned" servers where it is otherwise difficult for users to see the computer infrastructure of their environment.

The three major server models are:

  • StatSys (Strata-Server, Client-Server, Centralized-System): A stratified system with a classic hierarchy routing access through a central system. Users connect to this central hub which runs the simulspace, with possible localized elements being resolved on the users machine but not much beyond their location. This system has improved significantly, but it is still the oldest of computer network models and remains associated with admins who wish to keep a tight control on their servers.
  • LatSys (Lattice-Server, Cluster-Server, Dendritic-System): A lattice system has a central authority but different nodes or clade-spaces operate as sub-systems that are fairly autonomous. This functions like a structured peer-to-peer network where control is distributed but still concentrated in a few areas. Because of this division of control, these servers are associated with regionalized or decentralized communities (though the admins might admins may not be decentralized).
  • FlatSys (Plane-Server, Freeform-System): A totally flat, open system with no central system for routing. An unstructured P2P network where every machine is free to talk to every other directly. Unsurprisingly, these structures are very popular in Outer System habs and Autonomist communities generally, though signal lag limits their utility between habitats in deep space.

Kristjánian Schematic

The most commonly use simulspace categorization scheme is a three-dimensional grid system developed by sociologist-memeticist Filip Kristján. In his work, Kristján cites the relational diagram from twentieth-century U.S. therapeutic tool known as the "Johari window" or "Johari house" as the root of his schematic. The Johari house is essentially a grid with two axes and four quadrants into which all aspects of a subject's personal qualities can be found. In a Kristjánian Schematic, the simulspace community being investigated is taken as the subject with the graph increased to nine areas for more nuanced categorization.

kristjanian-schematic.png

The horizontal axis of the Kristjánian Schematic shows the degree of control available to users of the community with three categorical options:

  • Empowered: Avatars are like superheroes and can do whatever their users can write. Heavy modding and redesign of the simulspace are all possible for experienced programmers.
  • Integrated: Users have impressive abilities within the simulspace but they must access them through the environment or when given permissions by admins.
  • Simulated: These servers function like simulations of non-digital space and users are unable to change or avoid the environmental laws of the simulspace except unless they break security codes.

The vertical axis of the Kristjánian Schematic shows the degree of control exerted by the server's admins with three categorical options:

  • Controlled: The server is very admin-directed; they can change avatars and privileges at will, or nearly so.
  • Directed: Admins control large-scale spaces but individuals and small private servers exist which admins cannot or by custom do not alter.
  • Systemitized: Admins maintain server integrity and police for malware but in general do not affect the server space.

These six categories intersect to give nine different server types, and Kristján's field research into post-Fall infomorph communities led to profiles of these nine server types for each of the three major server models. The growing categorical model associated with the Kristjánian Schematic are listed below.

StratSys Kristjánian Categories

Systematized-Empowered

Common Names: Titanian-style, Freeverse
Description: Admins are defined and official, but are really tech-support for the users who freely manipulate the server code. While strange creations and personalizations occur this system is still structured and sensible, making it attractive for those who want the freedom to experiment without the extreme chaos found in other systematized-empowered servers.
Prominent Examples:

  • Møysalen: The Titanian Commonwealth maintains this large simulspace server for those citizens still waiting for a body. Named for the large national park of Møysalen in Norway, this rugged simulspace world features a wide range of terrains from ocean fjords up to icy mountaintops and alpine meadows. Unlike the old national park, this Møysalen has towns and even a moderately-sized city (Vandrefalk) built among the primal landscape for infugees to live in. Vandrefalk and other communities are built by the infomorph inhabitants, however, who are given free leave to modify the server so long as it doesn't injure others or threaten the simulspace infrastructure. Because of this, some Commonwealth citizens have chosen to remain in Møysalen even when they are selected for reinstatiation, a trend which worries some in the Titanian government.

Directed-Empowered

Common Names: None
Description: Admins establish base rules which are immutable, typically to protect users from others. The most common base rule is the so-called "cloak of goodness" or "nerfing" rules which require consent from a user before simulated violence begins. Outside of these rules, users have immense power and little oversight.
Prominent Examples:

  • Phobean Trollheim: It might surprise many that even the hypercorp moon of Phobos has a trollheim area, but it is less surprising when one learns that the red-light district is actually a simulspace server. Admins in the employ of Cognite and the moon's other owners maintain safety regulations and consent-protocols to make sure things don't get truly out of hand, but this is the only place on the moon where drugs and violent fight clubs can be legally experienced… albeit only as simulations. With the help of experienced programmers, though, these simulspaces are as realistic as they are controlled.

Controlled-Empowered

Common Names: Mythic Servers
Description: Users are like superheroes, but admins are like gods. Situations often escalate because of the feeling that admins will step in if it's out-of-hand. Thus, these servers tend to get more "high-powered" than empowered servers with less-involved admins, ironically.
Prominent Examples:

Systematized-Integrated

Common Names: Godless-like Servers
Description: Admins weave code manipulation privileges into the server-code as backdoors and "cheats," but they rarely share these items publicly and many frequently change them. Sometimes this is considered "passive-aggressive" control and many StratSys servers that start as systematized-integrated move to directed-integrated over time as the admins become more involved. Despite the reliance on hidden codes, many user attributes in these servers are freely modded and adapted, including avatar appearance, freedom of movement, and built environment.
Prominent Examples:

  • Godless MVRRPG: This popular Massive Virtual-Reality RPG has been running for years and continues to be a mainstay of gamers in the Planetary Consortium and Lunar-Lagrange Alliance habs around Luna. Though the franchise and designers predate the Fall, the system was completely reworked about a year after the end of hostilities and has become as much social network as gaming platform. The post-apocalyptic steampunk design of the game may have something to do with its popularity (blending familiar loss with strange fantasy), as well as the clever and intricate "easter eggs" hidden throughout the server. The involvement of the admins in Godless servers means that people can feel safe from agression or violence, and the easter egg system rewards long-time users for their commitment.

Directed-Integrated

Common Names: Alchemist Servers, Forsk'Rifts
Description: Admins establish the "magic formulae" for code manipulation, sometimes as publicly known keys and sometimes as easter eggs. While power can be hierarchical, there are often mentor-users who help newcomers figure out the tricks of utilizing the system. In non-commercial or game-centered servers, this "playing around" with the environment is often viewed as the point and admins frequently rework the integrated formulae to keep users guessing.
Prominent Examples:

Controlled-Integrated

Common Names: Panoply Servers
Description: Access to "rule-breaking" privilege-zones is tightly controlled, and possibly used as a reward system. Societies in these servers are very hierarchical based on experience, with casual users weakened and established users heavily modded. Unlilke Directed-Integrated StratSys servers, these simulspaces do not typically reward players for ingenuity and there are rarely mentors to help new users. Advanced capabilities come directly from the admins who award based on merit, commitment to the server-world, or some other ranking system.
Prominent Examples:

Systematized-Simulated

Common Names: Evolutionary Servers, GrindServs
Description: This server type encourages some of the most buy-in from users since advantage and position can only be gained one way: digital sweat and blood. Patches occur sometimes but generally these servers are designed and established, then the environments stay relatively static afterwards.
Prominent Examples:

Directed-Simulated

Common Names: None
Description: Admins are usually active only a small area, either their immediate surroundings as traveling "circuit-admins" to maintain order or in specific "safe zones" where users can go for arbitration.
Prominent Examples:

Controlled-Simulated

Common Names: CosPlay Servers
Description: Admins are active throughout the server maintaining the server rules, though they often do so in subtle ways so as not to create jarring changes for users. Probably the most common server type for "themed" servers and immersive roleplaying communities.
Prominent Examples:

LatSys Kristjánian Categories

Systematized-Empowered

Common Names: None
Description: Admins tend to fill the role of architects in these servers, establishing the structures of public-space and clade-spaces but rarely building much on top. Instead, users are the ones who create the environment, claiming and shaping clade-spaces to their ideologies.
Prominent Examples:

Directed-Empowered

Common Names: Tribal Servers, InfoBrinker Worlds
Description: In these servers, admins often stylize themselves as "first among equals" and most often maintain checks against modded-up users in their clade-space. This server-type is popular against philosophical uploads who see simulspace as a way to create a digital utopia free from the physical world. Their leaders may be philosopher kings after Plato's republic or religious gurus who lead through example more than power.
Prominent Examples:

Controlled-Empowered

Common Names: World-Tree
Description: In this model, public spaces are very frequently used where admins collectively maintain integrity. Clade-spaces allow for different "customs" but it's not uncommon for localized "editing duels" to be quashed by an admin. Though the common label of "World-Tree" is applied to these worlds, the dominant mythological associations are Mesoamerican and Greek and numerous examples of both exist throughout the system.
Prominent Examples:

  • PyramidX: This Venusian server is notable for having two semi-independent public-spaces. One, Kay Pacha, is based on the Morningstar-affiliated aerostat of Machu Pichu where the dominant languages are Spanish and Quechua while the landscape is reminiscent of Incan mountain cities. The other is based in the Consortium-affiliated aerostat of Etemenanki conducts itself in Arabic and Farsi and has a Mesopotamian motif to the simulspace. Many different clade-spaces of wildly different designs connect to either or both of these public-spaces and users can make considerable adjustments to the environment to build impressive designs. The explicit mission of the cross-borders simulspace server is to promote cooperation between the politically divided aerostat and construct rather than destroy. As such, the free-building is kept in check by strict admin controls and violence of any kind leads to strong responses from moderators.

Systematized-Integrated

Common Names: Fightverse
Description: Clade-spaces in these servers are built and maintained by admins as mini-worlds where specific rules hold and others are mutable. What's mutable changes from space to space, but a number of these servers work different "magics" into the codes, leading to an association with fantasy RPGs. The term "fightverse" is applied to a certain subset of this server type where each clade-space features different worlds for conflict. Sometimes MVRRPGs and sometimes community-driven fight clubs, a scoreboard keeps track of the gains in each clade-space and the admin group shares these rankings for a server-wide scoring system.
Prominent Examples:

  • The Nine Worlds: Probably the quintessential fightverse that comes to mind when someone mentions the term. This German-language server based on Mars is designed to imitate the Nine Worlds of Norse mythology, with each of the eight clade-spaces hosting a dramatically different world with challenging landscapes and dangers. Vanaheimr is a realm of thick forests and stalking beasts with well-guarded towns, Jötnheimr is a land of mountains and chasms where huge giants patrol their rocky kingdoms, Álfheimr is a land of spirits and strong magical ley-lines, Ásgarðr is a rugged landscape of palaces and fortresses where the agents of "gods" lay traps for trespassers, and Svartálheimr is a twisting network of tunnels with black horrors. Aside from these, there are three "epic realms" where the conditions are even harsher: Hel is a blasted land of creeping undead and draining magics, Niflmeimr is a freezing realm of glaciers and snow, and Muspellsheimr is a constantly raging firestorm. In these clade-spaces, admins maintain and run AI-controlled enemies but the major action takes place between dueling users (taking the role of "demigods" in the loose storyline of the game) who fight for supremacy. Fights are often to the death, though any users who are killed are allowed to reload afresh in the public-space of Miðgarðr.

Directed-Integrated

Common Names: Extropian, Committee
Description: Admins oversee individual clade-spaces where some rules are immutable, but this immutability is often designed by referendum. They might change with public consent and the admins are often socially or systematically checked by the users, making these servers fiercely democratic and also immensely popular with Extropian communities throughout the solar system. Public spaces are sometimes the victims of these committee-driven servers, however, and tend to be hodgepodges of overlapping design.
Prominent Examples:

Controlled-Integrated

Common Names: Feudal
Description: Admins create their clade-spaces and provide code shortcuts to trusted users. There are privileged hierarchies but they have clear boundaries and defined structures. Public spaces are neutral and safe, but also frequently considered "dead" by users since no shortcuts exist and therefore no special permissions to affect code.
Prominent Examples:

Systematized-Simulated

Common Names: Escherverse
Description: This type describes some of the quirkiest systems, where clade-spaces have their own rules and stepping between them is like jumping between dimensions. Admins often cultivate an air of mystery or misdirection to help this atmosphere.
Prominent Examples:

Directed-Simulated

Common Names: Matryoshkaverse, ShellServ
Description: Sometimes portrayed as a server-in-a-server, these systems have public-spaces which are collectively maintained, clade-spaces which are maintained by specific admins, and private digital structures where users can do as they please. While this trend of decreasing control leads to a freedom which is more integrated than simulated at the lowest, private level, such control is only allowed in very limited regions, hence the shell conceptualization.
Prominent Examples:

Controlled-Simulated

Common Names: Multiverse, S&Mverse
Description: Admins freely control their clade-spaces and shape them to their will, and users just have to deal with it. Normally, these systems collapse with malicious admin-abuse so they tend to be fantastic and exciting rather than harsh. A very noticeable exception to this, however, are sadomasochist servers where users purposefully seek out punishment or the chance to dominate others in the custom-designed "dungeon rooms."
Prominent Examples:

  • The Vault: Extropia has a thriving infomorph community. The Vault caters to their needs to secure storage and cryptographic privacy. While the Vault appears to be a single system in the Mesh it is actually a number of separate computronium mainframes maintained across Extropia, linked with some of the best quantum encryption money can buy to guarantee service. Inhabitants are assured secure storage, plentiful computer cycles and complete privacy within their servers. If someone decides to cocoon inside their server they are practically impossible to access even by Vault employees. Even finding a particular server is hard unless its owner ceases payment; the system is built so that the infrastructure reveals minimal information as long as all is going according to contract.

FlatSys Kristjánian Categories

Systematized-Empowered

Common Names: Anarchist Server, Chaosverse
Description: Whether the culture of these servers is anarchism or just anarchy depends on the server and on whom you ask. System techs create a framework and maintain the back end, but the collective space is constantly changing/evolving/exploding as users freely rework it.
Prominent Examples:

Directed-Empowered

Common Names: None
Description: These servers feature base-rules that everyone agrees to maintain through an Autonomist, socialist, or representational democratic model. Outside of this agreement, though, users freely do as they wish in manipulating the virtual world.
Prominent Examples:

  • The Eyrie: This server based on Locus is a local hangout for AGIs and attracts infolifes from around the system almost as much as the fantastic creations on Glitch. Every user is expected to take on the form of a bird, the size and type deciding social standing. What prevents everyone entering the server from choosing a massive bald eagle? Well, the short answer is "nothing." The Eyrie might be filled with eagles except that the server requires increasingly complex programming for increasingly powerful builds. Of course, most AGIs live and breathe complex coding but there's also a sense of needing to explore in this space. Many of the users in the Eyrie choose to be sparrows to see what it's like to move in tandem with others, or ravens to collect and decorate a nest, or even a penguin to live in a world where they are fundamentally limited compared to everyone around them.

Controlled-Empowered

Common Names: RepServs
Description: All users readily manipulate the environment, but some users have more sway given their rep (often tied to physical, meatspace rep networks). They rely on others maintaining their edits for them, out of respect, and might orchestrate large-scale editing with favors or rep-boosts.
Prominent Examples:

Systematized-Integrated

Common Names: None
Description: This friend-to-friend model only allows code manipulation between peers who agree to it. Users will approve those who can change their avatar or alter an environmental piece they put in, though "environmental mods" like flight or cosmetic adjustments are generally allowed.
Prominent Examples:

  • Calvinball: This chaotic server is a constant bombardment of rules and challenges by the environment and other player/users. Simply gaining entry requires getting past some impromptu obstacle courses set up by the current referees, a set of positions which grants admin access to the entire space. The rules of the game and of the server, including which users are appointed referees, change constantly according to the inhabitants' self-imposed restrictions. Many peoples' first reaction to the Calvinball space is "when does someone win?" The most common answer is "hopefully never."

Directed-Integrated

Common Names: Puzzleverse, Memeverse
Description: Users here often create code-manipulation algorithms and set them propagating through others' machines. So long as it doesn't trigger malware responses, these "living memes" are a staple of so-called "puzzleverses" and spotting the manipulation is a common form of entertainment.
Prominent Examples:

  • Kannagara: The largest community of Neo-Shinto adherents in the system reside in this server, designed to resemble an idyllic Japanese countryside. Users regularly write small, basic programs which are released into the server network to create digital kami which interact passively with other users. Some areas are considered special and users are required to "appease" the integrated kami before they can access them, effectively solving a puzzles about Shinto theology to limit these areas to only the faithful.

Controlled-Integrated

Common Names: None
Description: Privileged users maintain the integrity of the space while users manipulate and change the free variables. Base parameters remain constant and other details may periodically reset.
Prominent Examples:

Systematized-Simulated

Common Names: SimCities
Description: Users can create their world freely, within the bounds of the server's physics. Creation is a group effort and often centers around a societally-important project from a pyramid to a mesh series.
Prominent Examples:

Directed-Simulated

Common Names: None
Description: The world is open, but server creators hold on to the reins still. They may run a central area from their machine so that it's always around or they may require a base packet download for each user to maintain some commonality. Ordinarily, this control is so slight that most users never notice but it's stronger than just a Systematized-Simulated FlatSys.
Prominent Examples:

  • We, Ourselves, and Us: Moving around in this server means creating digital forks that work in tandem. Unlike many other servers, the infrastructure of We-Ourselves prevents direct linking between forks. Essentially, each set of fork-siblings (usually 5-10) must interact as separate individuals. Additionally, the server wipes simulspace constructs every twenty subjective hours so that permanent building is impossible. The result of these two limitations is to create for AGIs something like early hominid groups on Earth: a digital Eden where everything is eternally wild and inhabitants operate in small family groups. The actual space is digital and features randomly-determined alterations, but the "feral programs" and raw data streams feel fairly primal to the infolifes here.

Controlled-Simulated

Common Names: Dreamverse
Description: Someone had an idea for a world with these servers and they made it. Users are just visiting and can interact with the world, but it undeniably belongs to the designer. The dream lives beyond the creator's machine and original plan, but it is immutable and conforms to their vision even when it expands.
Prominent Examples:

Color Mode Categories

A more colloquial, but also more engaging, classification is the growing method of describing simulspace servers based on their character according to a system of colors related to the stated focus of a given server. While the stated focus of a server and its actual focus are sometimes very different, most infomorphs can recognize this and describe a server as "blue but really functions like green" or a similar qualification. There is also the problem of regionalism, since this system is favored by infomorphs (whether infolifes or uploads) who are often separated from like-minded communities. Local discrepancies still exist but infomorph communities have coallesced around the following terminology as a core for describing server communities.

Color Mode: Blue

Primary Focus: Anarchism

Anarchist servers function mostly like anarchist habs: everybody can function on their own without interference, but support of the community is rewarded by other users. Unlike anarchist habs these servers are not limited to the Outer System, although they are much more common there. So long as the habitat's interactions with the outside world match local regulations, most authorities do not care. In fact, many consider simulspace worlds as "not real" and don't worry about what goes on there at all, so long as actual crimes are not being commited.

Life in these servers is the ultimate post-scarcity society where not even food and living space is at a premium. Server speed can be an issue for small servers or large ones with huge numbers of users, but aside from this nobody has much need for anything. As a result, society tends to shift to rewarding creativity, ingenuity, and entertainment. There is also a large market for experimental codes and constructs, with people creating freeware adaptations and earning rep on Circle-A for their work. Anarchist servers are often wildly fantastic places with truly ingenious simulspace design, although others are peaceful simulationist versions of idyllic worlds, themed sci-fi anarchist societies, constantly-running performance art shows, or anything in between.

Color Mode: Red

Primary Focus: Hypercapitalism

Most red servers are owned and operated by hypercorps, leaving little doubt to their character. The Cognite's now-defunct Futura servers, Direct Action's cyber-warfare Black Zone, Solaris Bank's digital PEX trading floor, and Exotech's freeform design space all fall into this category. Whether the digital structure mimics meatspace or is more creative, the societies tend to operate just like transitional economies in the inner system. Credits are traded for goods and services, the same credits as those physically sleeved used. While this is excellent for many users, who would prefer to have a digital existence fit neatly with their physical one, for uploads looking to make a separate digital world red servers can feel a little stifling.

Not all red servers fall along these lines, however: some exist instead as digital underworlds for physical habitats. Commonly called "Axel's Islands" after a subterranean realm from an ancient novel by Jules Verne, these realms are created by hypercorps, off-the-clock hypercorp programmers, or just amateurs who support hypercapitalist ideals. They are nothing like any habitat of meatspace in terms of the environment, but the social interactions and economy are very familiar. Some have their own currencies (with exchange rates to PC credits) and others use the economies of the polities their servers are housed in, but rep systems universally take a back seat just like meatspace transitional economies.

Color Mode: White

Primary Focus: Research

The majority of white servers are affiliated with the Argonauts, the nano-ecologists, or both. Those servers associated with hypercorp research arms are usually small, private spaces and the majority of transhumanity has no access to them or interest in counting them. Simulspaces dedicated to research have a reputation with being bland, serious-minded affairs but this isn't always the case. Many ecologist and genetics research simulations look more like jungles on the inside than research labs and computer/encryption/programming simulspaces can be just as strange as Glitch. All of them tend to have strict rules associated with them, the better to simulate experiments, and they are some of the most dedicated and networked upload populations on the system.

Color Mode: Yellow

Primary Focus: Hedonism

Not all servers have a political agenda or a research goal. Some are just looking for a good time and simulspace offers a universe of interesting new thrills that are just not available in meat space. The largest fraction of yellow servers are on board scum swarms throughout the system, wild orgies of narcoalgorithms and fetish simulspaces. Other yellow servers are located on cramped habs (autonomist, hypercapitalist, and others) where a large virtual space offers inhabitants a way to blow off steam. The ubiquitous Trollheims across the solar system are a perfect example.

The main divide among yellow servers, however, is not intent but infosensualism vs. simulfetish. Infosensualist servers are those that embrace the digital medium of simulspace and utilize completely non-organic hedonism like narcoalgorithms and code-intimacy involving the digital equivalent of sex in its thousands of different forms. Simulfetish, on the other hand, is a way to make impossible situations real for the enjoyment of users, from snuff porn to obsessions with fictional characters or worlds. Massively-multiplayer VR games are probably the most innocuous form of these servers.

Color Mode: Purple

Primary Focus: Extropianism

Some dismiss this color mode as merely an Extropian-biased blue anarchist server or an Extropian-based red hypercapitalist server (depending on your personal politics), and it's no mistake that the mesh community has picked the color for this mode which is a combination of the two. Digital sociologists, however, regularly identify Extropian communities as different from both of these others and classify them accordingly. In Extropian simulspace communities, digital architecture is created by consensus and affiliation is key. If you want access to the newest mods created by those in the community, you have to grant a degree of access to that group over your digital profile and shell. Over time, this factionalization can lead the community to shift towards another color mode (typically red, blue, yellow, or orange) as one or more groups gains dominance and excludes others, but there are many examples of long-running purple servers which maintain their founding designs. In most cases, this is achieved by requiring mods to be multi-platform and to become open source after a specified period so that others can make new versions. The most notable exception to this is the digital community of Consilience hosted on the Locus servers, which has existed as a freely open Extropian community for more than five years without any noticeable shift in its community values.

Color Mode: Orange

Primary Focus: Techno-Socialism

Unsurprisingly, the majority of orange servers are found in Titanian space but they also exist among Argonauts, Europans, and various belt communities as a more efficient way to structure society along technological lines. Server space is freely given, like in blue servers, but it is also overseen by a set of admin programmers who make sure that things remain equal. This results in an egalitarian feel, which has also led to a number of orange-yellow artist server colonies. Ironically, the most ardently-controlled orange servers are those hosted outside of Titanian space, often with no stated connection to the Plurality, which are more like the early communist communities on Earth. Gaining advantage over ones neighbors on these servers is dealt with quickly and almost gleefully by admins. These servers have much lower permanent populations than others and many exist as thought-experiments and part-time socializing areas only.

Color Mode: Silver

Primary Focus: Mercurialism

Focused on Mercurial memes and ideas, most silver servers, with a handful of exceptions, focus on the AGI side of the Mercurial agenda over the uplift side. By far the most populated silver simulspace servers are focused on promoting civil rights for AGIs and uplifts in areas where they have limited legal identity. Nearly every silver server has an area where users can access libraries (simulated or interfacing) of legal statutes concerning the rights and protections of uplifts and AGIs in various polities, free for the use of any defendants or legal experts to counteract hypercorp lawyers with money and authority behind their accusations.

Aside from "general" Mercurial simulspace communities, there are a number of niche communities which exist alongside or even within general silver servers. A number of silver-orange simulspaces (Mercurial and techno-socialist ideas) exist for artists designing distinctly non-anthropocentric art. Some term these as a separate server type ("amber servers") but they are too specialized for most to categorize differently. A famous orange-silver/amber server called OrnaMental exists in the heart of Locus alongside the pre-sapient Amoeba art installation, creating similar living pieces of art to send throughout the system. Other silver servers focus on niche Mercurial interests such as propogation/procreation (creating progeny infolifes by forking or mingling codes respectively) or de-pithing groups (removing limiting code built into AIs to prevent their cognitive growth). There is rumored to be a large de-pithing simulspace in Noctis on Mars where Mercurial infomorphs liberate AIs from hypercorp servers and raise them to sentience. On the uplift side as well there are special interests servers where genehackers and engineers test out new ideas in simulspace for the improvement of Mercurial cultures free from human influence.

Color Mode: Green

Primary Focus: Ecology/Reclaiming

A newer designation, green servers are often cross-categorized as white servers because they are so focused on the science of terraforming and ecological design. They have a social aspect, however, that has led to the green color mode gaining traction as the simulations of Reclaimer movements and nano-ecologists become permanent worlds for uploaded egos and AGIs who want to determine the best way to live sustainably on terraformed planets. A small number of Reclaimer sims are painstaking recreations of pre-Fall Earth cities with little active research going on. These are niche communities at best, though, and debate among digital communities whether or not to categorize to treat them as yellow entertainment servers is ongoing.

Color Mode: Black

Primary Focus: Exhumanism

These Brinker server colonies are inhabited by extremist egos who rework and splice themselves to evolve beyond humanity. Although many of the exhuman egos in these servers live most of their time as time-accelerated uploads, they are not typically connected to more mainstream infomorph communities. As such, the actual users of black servers are unlikely to use this term for their systems. Outsiders, however, will mark black servers on databases to warn others before they arrive.

Glitch

The following was orginally written by the fantastic Elround4 from Myth Weavers and reproduced here with permission. It is edited and massaged by the editor.

Top-Level Mesh

Sometimes called the "normal" mesh by either very naieve or very sarcastic visitors, this mesh server consists of several straightforward Directed-Empowered LatSys servers spread among the more complex habitat variants and trace sub-systems within the twenty processor blocks. Here is where the vast majority of the habitat's uploads and infolifes live, inside of the servers specially designed to run them within a highly enhanced environment. Even with these vast numbers, however, only a fraction of the station's server power is needed for the top-level mesh. The rest of the processor blocks are devoted to hosting the truly astounding quantity of simulspaces, file/program directories, hyperlinear/highly-advanced research resources, and other services.

All inhabitants of Glitch have their own home simulspace and a personal directory containing memory/processing capacity proportional to basic mesh inserts, free access to drone sensor feeds, numerous other simulspaces of immense diversity, countless Glitch mesh sites, and the necessary tools and resources for moderate research projects. For more advanced needs (such as more extensive tools, full control of drones or bots, access to anything that could be considered risky to the habitat, or exotic codes), they have to make a good case to the scientific/academic community hierarchy. Usually this is just boring forms to fill out, but things speed up nicely for those making requests as a group. Of course, for truly unusual requests (egocasting, a nanofabricated drone or ship to leave the station, private partitoining of a major percentage of server space, etc.) require a community quorum and consulting with rep networks like any good Autonomist habitat. Any threat to security procedures will lengthen the time but generally if someone wants out of Glitch then the rest of Glitch doesn't want to lock them up.

Some of the most popular commonly accessible services/system within Glitch are listed below. As mentioned previously, all of the following servers are Directed-Empowered LatSys.

Elysium

Though it appears to be a massive city when visitors first rez in, Elysium is actually an intentionally limited simulspace city that consists of a patchwork of individual rooms and medium sized atriums. Elysium is what is left of the core of the old Neptune Polis that predated the informorph community of Glitch as a nested, ordered environment that offered views and new environments without needing to use processor space on widescale environments. Windows, breezeways, and occasionally balconies offer views of blue sky, a mountainous horizon, and a wide river valley. Of course, any attempt by users to enter this external space is blocked by the program's infrastructure.

Today, Elysium serves as the "neighborhood" joining Glitch together. Every inhabitant’s private home simulspace in Glitch contains a portal link to this simulspace and the default sensorium interface always features it as a floating address tag for access. Informal discussions usually happen in Polis Main Square, but "official" habitat-wide matters are discussed in Elysium's atriums. More than this, the hallways of Elysium are intended to join together the otherwise-isolated residents of Glitch to maintain a sense of unity. There are thousands of infomorphs in Glitch but an individual user may only interact with most other residents as usernames on lists. Passing others in the hall reminds Glitch inhabitants that there is a large group here and it can give them a chance to meet new people.

That's the idea, at least. In practice, the "quaintly biological" rendering (to use a common critique) means that many on Glitch only visit for mandatory scheduled meetings in the atriums, and that only to avoid rep hits.

Polis Main Square

The largest social space in Glitch, Polis Main Square has become the spot where residents often go for idle communication. Before Glitch became the infomorph haven that it is today, this server was still a meeting place called Neptune Polis by the researchers on board. Egos here form non-academic teams temporarily to discuss practically anything. Occasionally this is the site of massive collective actions by Glitch residents to push for changes. Though it is one of the most common site for infomorphs to hang out on, this mesh site is also one of the more chaotic on the Top-Level since it doesn’t imposes a single default interface. As a result every user can view it however they wish and conflicting sensoria sometimes leads to interesting and amusing confusion. To help this while still allowing for free interpretation the server provides recommendations for one or more sensory packages in each room, grouped by activity and group.

Game Ring

This catalog was programed by a visiting programmer who wanted to leave an impact on Glitch after he left. Essentially, it is a minimalist mesh site with a default sensorium of the classic simulspace “white rooms.” While there isn't any game content in this site itself, the Game Ring gives a large, in fact ever-growing list of links to every AR and simulspace game found on Glitch. The list is maintained by a somewhat limited AI that monitors the site, maintains it, and constantly updates its index with new games. This AI appears as a chrome gold synth wearing a black suit that behaves like a stereotypical butler. An enduring mystery in Polis Main Square is what the name “Game Ring” might refer to.

The Library

When someone on Glitch needs a niche program, the first thing they do is check the Library. This space has two options, which are equally used by inhabitants. The first is a fully realized simulation that appears as a circular room with blue carpeted floors and a white dome high overhead. The room is filled with bookshelves that curve in concentric circles around the center where visitors rez in and the space has a phantom-infinity effect so that visitors never seem to get any closer to the edge of the room no matter how far away from the center they walk. The second option for visitors is akin to an AR-skinned directory in a vast space with amber-yellow shelves. With mental commands, visitors can move shelves around to search for the information they want and san through flat rims that float over the shelves' contents with information coded as words, images, sounds, or stranger labels.

In either case, the Library is a collectively-shared and -supplied resource of countless stored programs and data packets, links to information elsewhere in the habitat. In these shelves, visitors will also find nearly every ethical infomorph enhancement software one could ask for including upgrades, eidolon shells, non-harmful narcoalgorithms, and skillsofts. While it is a huge cache of information, many researchers on Glitch consider the Library a questionable source for academic searches. They maintain that there is just as much just-for-fun software and fancifcul data as there is hard facts. Other inhabitants are less concerned with these silly things called "facts."

The Truth Mines

Half research lab and half art installment, TTM is a unique simulspace that is the most-mentioned "must do" for visitors on the station. The server settings are cleverly written to incorporate the user's infomorph shell and the data running through the surface of the brain-emulation. The space itself looks and feels like a dimly-lit network of caves and tunnels branching out in every direction, only lit by glowing mathematical equations and small ceiling orbs. While inside, infomorphs feel the normal sensations of their shell but the server also echoes back surface thoughts using every element of the infomorph's sensorium in the most advantageous way for presenting information. The result is a bathing of one's own ideas and constantly shifting novel perspectives on old ideas and links between problems. Many transhumans find it jarring, even AGIs, but for those who can stand it the benefits of working with such a supportive system is phenomenal. The Truth Mines are maintained as a collaborative effort by interested individuals and research teams who want a place where infomorphs could ponder in solitude and collaborate intimately on mathematics and philosophy. There's no doubt that they have dont just that, but some consider the Truth Mines to be less serious research project and more "the drug trip most likely to win a research award," in the words of one colorful Glitch resident.

The Window

This mesh site was created by one of the first inhabitants of Glitch, though they have since left. It is now maintained by a community of astronomers, astrophysicists, and artists who collectively wanted to make sure everyone could have one place to go to for getting a well-rounded look outside of the habitat at the stars and the other bodies in Neptune’s orbit. Once visitors navigate through their options in the server's "entrance menu" (a quirky creation kept as a means of honoring the server's creator), visitors enter a fully-immersive VR “game” that provides the user with a three dimensional environment using real sensor feeds from the habitat's drones and satellites. May come just to look around, but the game element involves freerunning-style courses and dances that create virtual environments basd on the current position of objects around the station, updated once every 24-hour infomorph cycle. The community has updated the site to also offer vids and XP files that either add an artistic take to the virtual environment experience or add full-sensory educational commentaries with data from several external scientific instruments. They have recently added a new area which expands the same options of the original space with vids and XP files for Neptune’s L4, courtesy of Ilmarinen colleagues.

Infrastructure-Level Mesh

Also called the the "Lower Mesh" or "the Depths," these spaces house the major scientific and academic groups and that help Glitch function as it does. While the Top-Level spaces are like many other Anarchist or Scum communities (somewhere between a red and yellow server) the Lower mesh is has a definite hierarchy of admin permission sets and contains serious work. The servers feature specialized parameters and enhancements such as high-speed connections, far more redundancies, and links to quantum computers. Though Glitch doesn't need much to survive, what it does need is traded for the academic work and advanced programming that comes out of the Depths.

In addition to the research groups in the Infrastructure-Level are the Engineering Rooms. These servers are divided evenly between the Processor Blocks and go towards supporting the computer systems, orbital corrections, and other vital functions on Glitch. Computer systems in the Depths trace logistics, farcasting, large scale infosecurity operations, high resource experiments and research, exceedingly complicated forecasting experiments, and hordes of support non-sapient AI maintenance programs.

The Twelve Worlds

In addition to the malleable, open servers of the top-level mesh and the infrastructure-level research labs, Glitch holds a dozen virtual worlds of staggering detail. These simulspaces are so complex that they demand large sections of physical server space in the core of the Processor Blocks, making them somewhat like the Infrastructure-Level research labs. They are something more, though, since they are psychological and artistic triumphs created for their own sake rather than their utility.

A great deal of their server space goes toward deceiving the mind into thinking it is within a physical environment, but the Twelve Worlds are more than just well-written simulspaces. Experts in digital art and simulspace design will rapidly notice that many aspects of these worlds are directed by an internally consistent set of physical laws. This might seem unimportant to the layperson but considering that conventional simulspaces work with a patchwork of simpler simulation programs and numerous short cuts the difference in the Worlds is existential. To nearly every analysis and investigation, the creators of the Twelve Worlds have created universes in these servers.

Some of the Twelve Worlds are empowered- or integrated-type servers which allow users to modify their environment, the majority impose limitations that are similar to being sleeved in physical bodies. While normal simulspace rules apply, the Twelve Worlds impose a penalty ranging from -30 to -60 for any simulspace hacking from inside the server that would disrupt a given world's internal laws of physics. Even if they are successful, the hacker can expect repercussions from Glitch inhabitants for messing with these works of art.

Historical Earth

As might be expected from the name, this is a recreation of humanity's height on Earth. It is set in a period before the Fall started when technologies like uploading and pods were still being researched, but cybernetics, biotech, mega-engineering, and other technologies where fully maturing. This time period was also when many locales where experiencing a cultural renaissance and a feeling of optimism was widespread. On the other hand, this was also when the divide between the haves and have not’s was becoming very diverse and also growing quickly. The designers of this World chose this period as a starting point because they felt it showed the best and worst of the era that gave birth to transhumanity.

The world itself creates convincing depictions of the entire planet, though individual locales might be contested by serious historians. When possible, the creators have used eye-witness accounts to create Historical Earth but they also want to capture more of the mood and character of the period than the minute details. In addition to the main level of the simulation, an ingenious system of special doors have been implemented to “transport” visitors to a patchwork of smaller and less-sophisticated (though still hyper-realistic) simulspaces depicting other historical recreations throughout human and transhuman history.

Ring World

This uber-real virtual world imitates the theoretical concept of an orbital Ring World, a planetary scale mega structure that orbits a Sol-like star like a bracelet. The theories underlying the simulspace design place the Ring World band in the so-called Goldielocks Zone where temperatures are perfect for the development of life. The band of is constructed and spun with the thinnest edges facing the sun at an angle to ensure a day-night cycle, and a transhuman standing on the surface doesn't necessarily know that they are on a Ring World and not a planet if they don't notice the east and west horizons curving up and overhead in the far distance. Anyone traveling around, however, will quickly notice a difference since ring worlds have approximately three million times the surface area of an Earth-sized planet.

In terms of geography, the Ring World simulation has an artistically-fantastic range of land forms. The surface has a generally temperate climate, but mirror manipulation creates frozen "poles" and purposefully-located mountains lead to rain shadows and deserts. This World is a popular vacation site for those who miss physical activities and for hosting meetings where a physical space is required. Even outsiders sometimes rez into this World as a fantastic location to visit that is much cheaper to travel to than an exoplanet.

Autoverse

At the core of this simulspace is an experimental simulation that predates the Fall, a virtual world constructed to emulate biosphere. Of course, the modern Autoverse bears as much resemblance to the original as a giraffe does to an amoeba. The bulk of processing power in this highly sophisticated simulspace is split between simulating the planet itself and an equally advanced causally-linked suite of “artificial evolution” algorithms. Autoverse takes more short-cuts in its simulation than the other eleven Worlds, but it is still an excellent recreation and far more life-like than non-Glitch simulspaces. The program was has been running at an ever-increasing time acceleration rate for the last 60 years, though it was paused during the Fall when it was transplanted to Glitch. It has been running at the current increased time acceleration mode since the transplant and by now it has evolved a complex biosphere roughly equivalent to the Cambrian explosion. This explosion is coming slightly sooner than it did on Earth, though the cyber-organisms' mutation rate is higher than Earth species', mostly due to the strange leaps in its organism’s evolution that did not occur on Earth.

No one is actually allowed to tamper with the experiment, doing so leads to being exiled from the habitat and the experiment having to be paused and restored to an un-tampered backup. However, every Glitch inhabitant may enter it in “ghost form” (e.g. floating around as they would in the AR skinned infosphere environments and then observe everything without directly affecting them) and to try out a significantly smaller scale version of the “artificial evolution” algorithms in their home simulsapces (provided they don’t continually run it). Accompanying this world is a smaller “normal” simulspace attached to it as a software plugin that functions as a library, observation lounge, and discussion board by the habitats biologists, scholars, and other likeminded people. Some philosophers, evolutionary biologists, and Infolife specializing computer scientists inhabiting Glitch have voiced reasoned concern that the Autoverse may someday evolve its own sapient “life-forms,” who may in turn figure out how to hack and fork their way out of the virtual world; in addition to being truly alien minds that could less likely be able to re-preprogram the Processor Locus systems and thus take control away from the Uploads and AGIs. However, Autoverse experts assert that this speculation is highly unlikely and unfounded, in that transhuman observation would notice such a risk well before it achieved true sapience.

Tel’veri-us

This virtual world is a fantasy setting that pools together various elements from the mythologies of many different cultures. Taking those elements, the habitat's most skilled storytellers have collectively made their own twists and collaborated ideas until they created this surreal and mythical world. Some consider it taking the concept of an MMO a little too far, but those who live here for long periods consider Tel’veri-us a place where the visitor immersed in a setting of escapist fantasy. Just like traditional folktales, this world of high magic, surreal landscapes, and fantastical creatures and societies offers a chance to explore real world concepts in a safe and illuminating way. The semi-permanent population of Tel'veri-us is a combination of improvisational roleplayers, methodical narrators, and sophisticated semi-sentient NPC programs.

Cellular Auto-nation

Designed to capture Glitch’s more mercurial elements, this virtual “world” is actually a huge and complicated Cellular Automata process. The inhabitants use this space to create a nest-VR experiment with a number of lesser simulspaces that form abstract environments to simulate a computer matrix of pure information and abstract geometric shapes. Each lesser simulspace in turn contains nested clusters of shapes being used to run simulated computer servers of various types. Cellular Auto-nation is most popular among eccentric artists looking for inspiration, Truth Mine dwellers, uploads with sufficiently adapted minds, and AGIs uninterested in the physical world. As the overarching simulspace gives everyone the equivalent of a Math Boost upgrade, most Glitch inhabitants like to visit this virtual "world" at least once a month to think things through.

Frontier Mars

This virtual planet is a simulation of Mars in the earliest years of colonization of the solar system. Simulmorphs can either be a flat and try out what it might have been like to live enclosed in a spacesuit or basic synthmorphs. Some come with simulmorphs of their own design featuring more modern morph features and simply spend their time exploring the surface of Mars pre-terraforming efforts. Most of Frontier Mars is empty but there is at least one corner where things have taken a turn for the fantastical. In the rough terrain to the west of Gusev Crater can be found a domed city called Helium which specifically tries to recreate the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The only permanent inhabitant of the city is its founder, an AGI calling itself Jeddak Lorn, but it has created a host of AI citizens to live in the city. A number of other Glitch inhabitants spend days on end in the city and it is also a popular tourist destination for visitors.

Atlantis

As the name suggests, this is an Earth-like virtual planet without any continents: a stylized mythical “Atlantis” with 70% of the surface as ocean and 30% as scattered islands. Simulmorphs designed to function well in the simulated aquatic environments (including a variety of neo-cetacean eidolons) are popular here, as well as "amphibious" forms that can transition quickly, but visitors can also chose from a variety of standard human varieties and stick to the dry land. While the immense virtual ocean is filed with imitations of Earth sea life as well as fanciful aquatic creatures, the scattered islands are fairly empty. Most are covered with tropical foliage and small insects like butterflies and ants but there is hardly anything to sea above the waves. The exception to this is the medium-sized, star-shaped island at the equator which contains the only permanent settlement on any large scale. Known simply as the City, this settlement has comfortable buildings for visitors to rest in and a substantial underwater area for transitioning to aquatic life or for aquatic simulmorphs to enjoy some civilization. There's no doubt that the purposes of Atlantis is entertainment and comfort, but there's also no doubt that the programmers building this place are achieving those purposes very well.

Solipsist Realm

Created by the most die-hard artists of Glitch’s entro-mind social movement, Solipsist Realm is a simulated planet filled with mountainous and forested landscapes that have an ever-so-slight surreal appearance. Semi-sentient programs, oversight dumb AIs, and ingeniously designed cellular automation algorithms ensure that visitors will almost always end up in organic mazes of foliage, rocks, and other natural objects. The entire simulspace is essentially an elaborate, unsolvable puzzle that many willingly enter as the ultimate form of escapism and exploration. Protocols also exist that let visitors' muses send information to the control programs if a visitor is bored, causing it to generate new environment and plausible shifts in the surroundings to keep said visitor eternally satisfied. The most frequent visitors also utilize narcoalgorithms to further increase the time they can stay and explore. The most extreme case of this is the so-called "true solipsists" who undergo psychosurgery to permanently remain here.

Plethora

Considering the large permanent population, it is somewhat unsurprising that this is one of the most well-known of the Twelve World simulspaces. Plethora is a fanciful vision of Earth where multiple sentient species evolved at once. Rather than some sort of Mercurial secessionist space, this world is instead intended to be a sort of Mercurial Eden where culture and thought are enriched by the variety of intelligences around. The current list of uplifted species is present including neaderthals, neo-primates, neo-avians, neo-octopi, neo-pigs, and neo-cetaceans as well as baseline humans. In addition, however, are the purely invented sentient species of neo-wolves, neo-cats, neo-sharks, neo-snakes, and neo-spiders. These twelve species each have "home cities" where they are the overwhelming majority as well as townships that are mixes of all sorts. Although the agrarian, naturalistic lifestyle of the population hearkens back to an earlier age, the technology level is equivalent to the modern age with one notable exception: there is no uploading or resleeving.

Although it has the largest permanent population of egos (150,000 by official count, with a little more than ten thousand of each species), Plethora is in many ways the least connected to the larger servers of Glitch. Nearly all of the egos in the server are beta forks of some five hundred volunteers, both uplift and non-uplift, who gave over copies of themselves to the cadre of programmer-psychosurgeons who run the world. These programmers have spliced, edited, and differentiated to create egos that are different from each other and in many cases distinctly non-human but that can still interact well. Visiting egos (who are given a muse-like program to help them fit into their chosen culture) quickly come to realize that the often drastic differences between individuals are hardly noted at all by the native egos. Prejudice based on species and difference are scrubbed out of the egos to create the harmonious living so sought after. This level of mental reworking, not to mention specifically creating inhuman egos, has some worried about Plethora leading to something dangerous. So far, though, it is nothing more than a wondrous thought experiment that many on Glitch like to visit.

eDroplet

"Live as an Iktomi!" This is the entire raison d'etre of this virtual world. The programmers have recreated the exoplanet of Droplet as best they can complete with fairly-convincing simulmorph versions of Iktomi biology from the most recent xenobiological theories. An Iktomi culture has been established as well, again based on research, and visitors receive an "Ikto-Me" AI to prompt them with what to do, functioning as a combination muse and skillsoft package. Once loaded into an Iktomi-based eidolon, users become expert swimmers, fluent in Iktomi glyphs, and native-level speakers of the modified "Modern Iktomi" that the programmers have created. The most fully-realized portions of eDroplet are those around the Droplet Pandora Gate, since that is the area with the most data available. Licenses have been taken to flesh out the rest of the planet, but the programmers of eDroplet would do a lot for fresh data on their favorite world.

Moravec++

The most recent virtual world of realism surpassing perception, Moravec++ is a result of the majority of Glitch’s community becoming very intrigued (obsessed in some cases) by the exoplanet of Moravec. This physical world is an empty planet with a still-active computer network that hosts virtual worlds far in excess of the planetary surface. In other words, it is a Mercurial AGI's wet dream-sim. While most in the Glitch servers claims it is nothing more than a fad and a huge waste of the resources, very few can deny the potent resonance of studying another digital civilization. Out of this raw curiosity even the highest egos in Glitch’s scientific/academic hierarchy have aided the efforts of drawing from credible sources in the recreation of this mysterious world. Moravec++ is thus an exceedingly accurate replication of the physical exoplanet (though without most of the transhuman colonies) and an excellent representation of its immensely complex molecular computer system and assisting nanomachine/robotic technologies. The “inside” of this simulated alien global mesh network, however, is merely a patchwork of conventionally nestled simulspaces given an aesthetic design based off of scientific reports about the real system. The "virtual worlds" of Moravec+++ lack any of the truly jarring aesthetics and experience of the real thing, though, and some complain that it feels more like a museum exhibit from the countless AR tags that inform visitors of where this simulation deviates from the real exoplanet. For the architects of Moravec++, this only makes them more obsessed about the real Moravec’s secrets. The only creative license taken with the simulation of the physical planet is a massive tower containing a physical library which is filled with links to all the credible academic resources on Glitch about this exoplanet and its alien civilization.

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